On 8 Sep 2005 at 13:23, Phil Daley wrote:

> As a sight reader, I would expect that, if there was an accidental in
> a previous measure that was tied over into the current measure, the
> next time that note appeared in the current measure, it would have a
> normal accidental.

I would expect exactly the opposite.

If the first note were *not* tied, the accidental would carry over 
for the whole measure.

I see no reason why tying should change that.

In either case, tied or not, the appearance of the note a half step 
away from the first instance seems to me to require an explicit 
accidental for any kind of clarity at all. That is, the second note 
needs an accidental no matter if it's the same or different, since 
otherwise, it's going to be open to interpretation.

Indeed, in older engraving styles (e.g., 20 yearw on either side of 
1800), accidentals in one voice are not even indicated in other 
voices. It's quite common in the music I'm working with to see an 
octave in the left hand of a piano part with the accidental only on 
the top note of the octave. It doesn't indicate a diminished or 
augmented octave, wich doesn't exist in that musical style, but 
implies a harmonic context where all instances of that pitch class 
get the accidental.

Sometimes it's very unclear whether or not some notes should or 
should not retain the accidental. Sometimes those accidentals even 
carry over to the next bar line. In those repertories, you really 
have to use your ear to figure it out.

To avoid that, it seems to me that one should be explicit about it. 
And any time you're changing the accidental of a pitch within a 
measure, it seems to me obligatory to indicate that explicitly, 
rather than ever assuming that a note without an accidental will be 
interpreted as natural.

-- 
David W. Fenton                        http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
David Fenton Associates                http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc

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